On June 19, 2021, NEMPAC Opera Project will present its 10^th season concert, titled “JUNETEENTH: Opera in the Key of Freedom.”

The concert will feature the music of Black composers from the last 250 years such as Chevalier de Saint-Georges, William Grant Still, Scott Joplin, and more. It comes in celebration of Juneteenth, the holiday marking the end of slavery in the United States when the Emancipation Proclamation was read in 1865 to the last group of enslaved people in Galveston, Texas.

Among the featured artists are vocalists Veena Akama-Makia, RaShaun Campbell, Kay Patterson, and Fred VanNess Jr.; violinists Thomas Cooper and Freya Liu; violist Kevonna Shuford; cellist Marshunda Smith; flutist Adrienne Baker; and pianist Julia Scott Carey.

The program will also include the world premiere of Mason Bynes “If Singing is Free,” a NEMPAC opera project commissioned for the concert. It will be performed and filmed at Boston’s African Meeting House, the oldest extant Black church in America.

The event will be free, though a registered ticket is required to stream. Suggested ticket price is $25, which goes to support the company and future productions, and there will also be a “Donate what you can” option.

The concert will be available to stream from its premiere through June 22.